Grace

Wednesday the
4thof April, 2007

Graceful degradation.

Innocuous little phrase, isn’t it?

If one takes a moment to consider it, however, the idea can be taken to
it’s logical conclusion: ‘You (or your browser) are incapable of
handling the full experience we want to present, so here’s a cut-down
version.’

At its core, the mere concept of ‘graceful degradation’ belies a lack of
respect for one’s users and, more critically, a fundamental
misunderstanding of the medium in which we work.

The fundamental building block of the web is not JavaScript. Nor is it
CSS. If your user experience relies on either of these, rather than
features native to HTML, then that user experience is fundamentally
flawed for use on the web.

The key is to design user interactions with naught but HTML’s base
features in mind, later using CSS and JavaScript to enhance that
experience (most likely streamlining it or making it more efficient).
Done right, this enhancement can even be done in progressive levels,
based on the availability of given features in the browser.

As a community, we coin phrases with nary a thought to deeper
connotations these might have. Under scrutiny, the idea of ‘graceful
degradation’ simply doesn’t align with user-centric design and
development.